I sighed, “You’ve moved here four years ago, Janet so you don’t know the complete story. I’m going to tell you this one time, and one time only and I will never discuss this with you again. Is that a deal?”
She looked at me with her big brown eyes and gravely nodded.
“You know about me and her and how I made a complete ass out of myself at my graduation party by proposing to her. I know you must have heard that story a thousand times around this town.”
Her look told me the truth of my statement. Even after the passage of six years, I was still held in ridicule by the entire town. By now, my action was planted firmly in the town’s lore and it was debated endlessly.
“You have to understand we all grew up around each other, played with each other, went to school with each other…”
I paused and then exorcized my reluctance of articulating their names.
“David… and Staci were my closest friends since kindergarten. Staci would insist that we play house with her and we attended countless meals of imaginary pies and cokes and cakes and ice cream and candy. One day I would be the father and David would be our child. The next day David would be the father and I would be their child. Staci, of course was always the mother who dictated our actions.”
“As we got older, David and I grew into that period of childhood where we thought all girls had cooties and avoided Staci like the plague. Staci took it hard at first, but then she migrated to hanging out with all her girlfriends.”
“David and I were as close as brothers. We were at each other’s house every day, playing Little League baseball, or in the Boy Scouts, or playing football. There was always something going on with us.”
I realized that as I began reminiscing that I couldn’t help but have a faint smile from the memories. Well, that wouldn’t last as I continued the tale.
“We would still all see each other. All our parents socialized at the country club and parties and benefits. And of course, being in the same grade, we all had the same classes and teachers.”
“Then came junior high school and something magical happened to all the girls. Puberty started changing the girls into fantastic creatures. Boobs started appearing and asses filled out skirts and pants.”
“And like every adolescent male… well at least every heterosexual adolescent male, we started lusting over these girls we had spent years ignoring. But they weren’t going to make it easy for any of us guys. So we were required to jump through hoops, like carrying books for them, or buying them a cheap bracelet or ring, or letting us know of another boy’s attention.”
“That is what happened to me and David. We began seeing Staci in a new light and surprise… we both wanted her. And bigger surprise… we didn’t want the other to succeed. And biggest surprise… Staci decided she wanted David.”
“You know even at that early an age to be rejected was quite a blow, but I recovered. I started dating and still maintained being friends with David and Staci.”
“Somewhere down the line, Staci and David derailed. He started cheating on her and he was open about dating others. It was messing Staci up and the week before Homecoming she came to me and asked me to take her out for Homecoming. I went to David and told him.”
“He said he was okay with it. He didn’t intend to ever date her again. So we started dating and feelings grew between us. I started doing things outside of dating like helping her with her homework, washing her car, you know, things like that.”
“I even started spending time getting to know her parents better. I would go over there and get corralled into playing a game of chess and losing to Mr. Buckman, constantly listening to him lectures on whatever caught his interest. That was usually business, particularly concerning Buckman’s Enterprises.”
“He kept throwing out these hominems, like ‘In business, the big eat the small’ or ‘Do unto others, before they do unto you.’ I would just sit there listening to the world according to Charles Buckman, hoping to impress him.”
“College came and Staci knew I was intent on preparing for our future. We had talked about getting engaged and marriage for a long time. She knew that I would be ready as soon as we graduated college. So this wasn’t a bolt of lightning out of the blue.”
“She knew… We talked about kids and everything…” She should’ve expected…”
I frustratingly groped for the words to make verbal sense of a situation that I still could not explain, much less comprehend. “She even picked out the damn ring.” I commented while looking at Janet hoping this was making sense.
Janet nodded and patted my arm to let me know she understood.
Gathering my wits I continued, “I don’t know when David came back on the scene. I never had any inkling that she and David were seeing one another. If she had told me… maybe I wouldn’t be here today. Maybe, none of this would’ve happened. But I continued to see her every day at school and date her every weekend and I didn’t have a clue anything was wrong.”
“So I get sucker punched in front of the whole world and everybody is laughing at me and talking about Staci and David’s little Romeo and Juliet’s romance. I never considered how Staci felt but it was enough for me that Staci decided to take him with her to Europe with her parents’ graduation present.”
“She runs off with him and they go to London, to Paris, to Rome, to Athens and I’m stuck in Camden with my heart ripped from my body.”
“Every fucking day, I have to man up and go to my job and pretend that nobody knows what happened to me. Staci and David came home to a whirlwind wedding to alleviate all the rumors flying from their European romp. Afterwards, they were shuttled off out of state until the clamor died down. Staci and David were hired to work at one of Charles Buckman’s subsidiaries in California until all the fuss died down. Meanwhile, Charles Buckman is pissed beyond belief for me putting his daughter and his family in this situation of public ridicule.”
“My little performance had consequences that were far reaching. The town was split apart on who was to blame for the fiasco. Unfortunately, Charles Buckman wasn’t going to stand around and have people besmirch his little girl.”
“He came to visit me and Dad at the bank and laid the blame totally on me. Then he told us that he had been studying the matter and decided that our town needed another bank to break what he called our stranglehold on the town.”
“He was there to close out his accounts. They would be invested in a new bank opening across town, Buckman’s Savings and Loans.”
“My dad tried to persuade him not to do that. It would cause a major rupture in the bank’s finances. But Charles Buckman was not going to be denied. So he took out his money and my father had to scramble to find alternate financing to meet his obligations.”
“Word got out that he was in a bind, so he was negotiating at a disadvantage. Commercial lenders were charging him outrageous rates and he had to accept to keep the bank afloat. It was an hour to hour, day to day battle to keep the doors open.”
“But Charles Buckman wasn’t finished. All of Buckman’s Industry employees paychecks were drawn on Buckman’s Savings and Loans and all the employees were pressured to open accounts in Buckman’s for direct deposits, and debit cards, and credit cards. Then car loans and house loans were given at a rate my father couldn’t match due to the problems we were having.”
“Customers were leaving by the droves. Buckman’s ATM machines flooded the area as small businesses were persuaded to exchange our machines for theirs. Essentially, he had us in a stranglehold and he wasn’t inclined to give up. He told all the local businesses that they would be well advised to move out to his location across town. They did, which caused the urban blight here on the city square.”
“That translated to less foot traffic into the bank. Which meant we continued to bleed away money. I was fighting right alongside dad every day tying to atone for my mistake that caused all this trouble. I persuaded my dad to give me access to some of the dwindling funds to trade in the stock markets and arbitrage transactions to staunch the bleeding. Luckily, I was able to be successful doing that. But, we continued to take hits.”
“My father was the president of the bank, but because of all the generations that passed there were relatives he was accountable to and they started raising hell that my father’s stewardship was causing them to lose money.”
“Lawsuits were beginning to be filed by second and third cousins seeking to take advantage and wrest control of the bank from my father. He continued to get up and fight every single day. I was right there beside him.”
“But the stress was too much for my mother. Charles Buckman made sure that we lost our membership at the country club. Mom lost her positions on all the charity organizations. She was ostracized by the entire town… My mother, who never hurt anybody in the world was being ripped to pieces by every bitch in this town.”
“Her blood pressure skyrocketed and the day came when my Dad was called to the hospital. My mother had suffered a stroke.”
“He was never the same after that. He handed over to me the day to day operation of the bank while he tended to my mom. I would go home and watch him fuss over my mother. When he had spare time, then and only then he would discuss the bank.”
“She lasted two months before she passed away. My father was the embodiment of a dead man walking after that. Three weeks after she passed, he suffered a widow maker heart attack.”
“I lost everything I cared for in less than a year and now I was saddled with the responsibility with running the bank. I was inadequately prepared for that responsibility but now it was thrust upon me.”
“I scrambled for every penny I could find. And there were a lot of people that wanted to see me fail other than Charles Buckman to pick up the bank’s assets. I was under immense pressure. Things were so desperate that I had to sell my parents’ house and my house to tide me over at one point.”